So, Mark noticed on Friday that the spammers have found redefine, and as a result, several of our blogs have been "crapflooded" -- i.e., the comments to our posts were filled with spam. Rushabh suggested that I install MT-Blacklist, which I did today before going into the city. So far, it has been useful in de-spamming my blog (deleting comments in the MT user interface is painful), but the jury is still out. The problem with any sort of blacklist is that you have to keep the definition file updated (which doesn't appear to be easy to automate), you can get false-positives, and the spammers can always be "one step ahead". Ultimately, I think that I may either just disable comments, or move to a forced-registration system, like what Carl is using now.
-Andy.
Posted by andyr at September 19, 2004 3:22 AMany chance of using a "capcha" like when you sign up for hotmail? You know, a goofy picture of letters or numbers that you have to type in manually? it's like a non secret password that only humans can use.
Either that or perhaps it's possible to hack the comment interface. just put a field up there after "name", "email" and "url" called "password". just put a bit of text saying "type the word 'cromulent' in the following field to post". reject posts that don't have cromulent in that field and accept those who do. I'd like to see a robot handle that.
Posted by: Mark at September 20, 2004 6:10 AMBut what if the spammers out-source the reading of "capcha's" to India?
-Andy.
Posted by: Andrew Reitz at September 20, 2004 11:12 AMThermonuclear bombardment?
Better get your parents to send your stuff over Rushabh.
Posted by: Mark at September 20, 2004 11:23 AM